Bingo continues every Friday at 8.30pm with the jackpot now €10,400, come along and bring a friend for an enjoyable night’s entertainment.

Sympathy

The Club wishes to extend its sincere sympathy to the Carroll Family, on the recent passing of Michael Carroll Crownstown Delvin.

Underage Training

Underage training continues this Friday for U6 to U12 age groupsat 6.30 – 7.30. The Club shop is open for the duration of training, with all the latest club merchandise available.

Senior Championship

Saturday evening, in Cusack Park, we kicked off our championship campaign with a very satisfying one point victory over Caulry. The Downs Played poorly for large periods of the first half, and were perhaps lucky to only trail by two points at the interval. Two magnificent saves by Kevin McGuire ensured we kept in touch of our opponents. Caulry raced out of the blocks in the second half and stretched their lead to 0-14 to 0-06 with one quarter left to play. A dean Egerton goal followed by two quick points from Luke Loughlin and one from Dean Egerton made sure for and exciting last ten minutes, 0-14 to 1-09. The strength of the Downs bench proved crucial at this stage, with Niall Mitchell taking control in midfield and Luke Folan and Harry Caulfield adding scores in attack, we began to chase down our opponents. With two minutes of normal time left The Downs thought they had finally took the lead only for Adam Loughlin’s goal to be Disallowed. But inside injury time Luke Folan stepped up to kick the winning score. Full Time 1-13 to 0-15. Team: K. McGuire, P. Murray, S. Egerton, S. Raleigh, C. Coughlan, D. Egerton, N. Gavin, D. Clarke, M. Kelly, D. Egerton, C. Murray, A. Loughlin, A. Kilmartin, L. Loughlin, D. Carroll. Subs used: J. Moran, N. Mitchell, L. Folan, N. Nolan, H. Caulfield, S. Power.

Junior Championship

On Thursday lasted, we played host to Shandonagh in the first round of the junior championship. The Downs were slow to start in this game and trailed 1-02 to 0-00 after five minutes. But eventually we began to find some rhythm to our play and played some fast flowing attacking football with Shane Power, Harry Caulfield and Steven Colgan operating efficiently in the middle third. Two first half goals from Shane Carroll ensured The Downs held the advantage at the break, 2-06 to 1-04. The second half began to where the first half had left of, with the downs well in control, points from Philip Doherty, Shane Carroll and Shane Conroy kept a comfortable gap between the sides. And mid-way through the second half a third goal by Shane Carroll opened up aten point margin and left no way back for Shandonagh. Full Time 3-13 to 2-09. Team: C. McCormack, R. Briody, E. Moore, K. Carroll C. Nolan, N. Murray, K. Bell, H. Caulfield, S. Colgan, S. Conroy, S. Power, P. Doherty, D. Coughlan, I. Martin, S. Carroll.

U16 Boys

The U16 lads had a busy week, with two huge games. First, they defeated Killucan impressively on Monday 17th in the first round of the championship. While on Friday the lads showed tremendous character and determination to defeat Coralstown/ Kinnegad in a trilling league decider. Full Time 2-09 to 1-10. Well done to all players and management on a memorable week.

The Downs 6-13 Moate 5-6The Downs Ladies team created a little-piece of history for themselves and their Club last Thursday night when they secured promotion and Division 1 league status for 2018. This is a young squad and since training started in February they have come together as a team and this win is clear testament to the work that they have put in. This Moate team had earlier in the season marginally beaten The Downs so it was great for our Ladies to overturn that loss and get their hands on some silverware. This was a very tight affair and the match lay in the balance throughout with Moate justifying their Senior Championship status with some very strong running and ball retention. However, you can never underestimate the determination and skill that is abundant in this Downs team and in the 2nd half they showed their never say die attitude and when it really mattered put on scores at crucial times. Our back line were strong throughout this match leaving very little space and developed more as a unit as the match progressed. Midfield were tireless in the running both supporting our defensive set up and assisting with our attacks. Our forwards were on fire and they broke fast throughout the game with the entire forward line getting on the score board.This group of girls are also in the middle of their Intermediate Championship and have successfully negotiated their initial two rounds. A significant portion of this squad are also involved in the Division 1 Minor Championship so a lot more football yet to play and more Silverware on offer - so we need to keep on training with everyone fighting for their place. Division 2 League Winners Squad Sarah Maguire, Aisling Egerton, Roisin Scally, Aoife Mullen, Amy Dagg, Niamh Rowan, Emma Murtagh, Meave Scally, Niamh Nolan, Sheila McGrath, Lucy Power, Leanne Duncan, Olivia Glynn, Britney McNamee, Beth Maguire, Ellen Taite, Niamh Staunton, Shauna Conneely, Karen Lynam, Ciara Wynne, Lauren Collins, Ciara Faulkner, Aoife Rowan, Gillian Ferguson.